The sub-series contains the working files for three major studies which the staff of the Corporate Evaluation and Methods Department (OEDCM) either participated in or directed. The first study, authorized by the Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE) in January 1999, was an OED review of the IDA program during the IDA-10-11 period (fiscal years 1994 - 1999) and during the first year of the IDA-12 replenishment (2000). The review, which examined IDA compliance with recommendations made by the IDA Deputies in the replenishment reports for IDA 10-12, concentrated on IDA's development contributions in six program areas (poverty reduction, social sector development, gender, environmental sustainability, private sector development, and governance) and four process reform areas (enhanced Country Assistance Strategy [CAS] design and implementation, performance-based allocations, participation, and aid coordination). The files for this study cover the period 1998 to 2003 and include intra-Bank correspondence that analyze Country Assistance Strategies and contain comments on the proposed CAS redesign and draft background reports on the six program and four process areas.

The second special study was an assessment of the implementation of the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF), an approach to development cooperation introduced by World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn in early 1999. The evaluation study was requested by CODE late in 1999. In the fall of 2000, the Bank hosted a global multi-partner conference to discuss how the evaluation should be conducted. As a result of that meeting, a Steering Committee was established in January 2001 to guide the study process with support from a Management Group, which was co-chaired by the Director-General of OED. The Steering Committee reflected the multi-partner nature of CDF and was composed of thirty members representing CDF pilot countries, donor agencies, development agencies, a developing country business firm, and an international non-governmental organization (NGO). The evaluation process itself focused on six case study countries: five for CDF pilot countries (Bolivia, Ghana, Romania, Uganda, and Vietnam) and one from a non-CDF country (Burkina Faso). The records documenting the CDF study cover the period from 2000 to 2004 and include, in addition to the usual special studies documents: planning documents for and minutes from the meetings of the Steering Committee and the Management Group and from a planning workshop held in October 2000; progress reports regarding the evaluation process; records from two workshops held in September and November 2002 to draft the CDF synthesis report; various drafts of the approach paper and an outline for the synthesis report; and drafts of chapters from the synthesis report itself.

The third study was an OED evaluative review of aid coordination policies, procedures, and practices. As part of this study, questionnaires were sent to three groups: Bank staff and managers; recipient government officials responsible for aid coordination; and representatives of local donor organizations. In addition to the OED questionnaires, OED and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) jointly requested the views on aid coordination from the directors of bilateral development agencies and officials of multi-lateral development banks (MDBs). The records in this sub-series are dated 1999 and relate only to the questionnaires received from the MDBs, the bilateral development agencies, and the local donor organizations. Included are the completed questionnaires and correspondence with World Bank country directors who selected the local donor organizations and with the directors of the MDBs and bilateral development agencies. Filed with the responses from MDBs and bilateral development agencies is a copy of the January 1999 report, Aid Coordination and the Role of the World Bank: An OED Review (Phase I) which summarized the first phase of the aid coordination study.